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meaning the venerable man willingly consented.
Tamoora Hideyeri belonged to the great temple of Tzionene, a Buddhist monastery, famous not only in all
Japan, but also throughout Tibet and China. No other is so venerated in Kioto. Its monks belong to the sect of
Dzeno-doo, and are considered as the most learned among the many erudite fraternities. They are, moreover,
closely connected and allied with the Yamabooshi (the ascetics, or hermits), who follow the doctrines of
Lao-tze. No wonder, that at the slightest provocation on my part the priest flew into the highest metaphysics,
hoping thereby to cure me of my infidelity.
No use repeating here the long rigmarole of the most hopelessly involved and incomprehensible of all
doctrines. According to his ideas, we have to train ourselves for spirituality in another world -- as for
gymnastics. Carrying on the analogy between the temple and the "spiritual plane" he tried to illustrate his
idea. He had himself worked in the temple of Spirit two-thirds of his life, and given several hours daily to
"contemplation." Thus he knew (!?) that after he had laid aside his mortal casket, "a mere illusion," he
explained -- he would in his spiritual consciousness live over again every feeling of ennobling joy and
divine bliss he had ever had, or ought to have had -- only a hundredfold intensified. His work on the
spirit-plane had been considerable, he said, and he hoped, therefore that the wages of the labourer would
prove proportionate.
"But suppose the labourer, as in the example you have just brought forward in my case, should have no more,
than opened the temple door out of mere curiosity; had only peeped into the sanctuary never to set his foot
therein again. What then?"
"Then," he answered, "you would have only this short minute to record in your future self-consciousness and
no more. Our life hereafter records and repeats but the impressions and feelings we have had in our spiritual
experiences and nothing else. Thus, if instead of reverence at the moment of entering the abode of Spirit, you
had been harbouring in your heart anger, jealousy or grief, then your future spiritual life would be a sad one,
in truth. There would be nothing to record, save the opening of a door, in a fit of bad temper."
"How then could it be repeated?" -- I insisted, highly amused. "What do you suppose I would be doing
before incarnating again?"
"In that case," he said speaking slowly and weighing every word -- "in that case, you would have I fear, only
to open and shut the temple door, over and over again, during a period which, however short, would seem to
you an eternity."
This kind of after-death occupation appeared to me, at that time, so grotesque in its sublime absurdity, that I
was seized with an almost inextinguishable fit of laughter.
My venerable friend looked considerably dismayed at such a result of his metaphysical instruction. He had
evidently not expected such hilarity. However, he said nothing, but only sighed and gazed at me with
increased benevolence and pity shining in his small black eyes.
"Pray excuse my laughter," I apologized. "But really, now, you cannot seriously mean to tell me that the
'spiritual state' you advocate and so firmly believe in, consists only in aping certain things we do in life?"
"Nay, nay; not aping, but only intensifying their repetition; filling the gaps that were unjustly left unfilled
during life in the fruition of our acts and deeds, and of everything performed on the spiritual plane of the one
I -- THE STRANGER'S STORY 30
Nightmare Tales
real state. What I said was an illustration, and no doubt for you, who seem entirely ignorant of the mysteries
of Soul-Vision, not a very intelligible one. It is myself who am to be blamed. . . . . . What I sought to impress
upon you was that, as the spiritual state of our consciousness liberated from its body is but the fruition of
every spiritual act performed during life, where an act had been barren, there could be no results expected --
save the repetition of that act itself. This is all. I pray you may be spared such fruitless deeds and finally made
to see certain truths." And passing through the usual Japanese courtesies of taking leave the excellent man
departed.
Alas, alas! had I but known at the time what I have learnt since, how little would I have laughed, and how
much more would I have learned!
But as the matter stood, the more personal affection and respect I felt for him, the less could I become
reconciled to his wild ideas about an after-life, and especially as to the acquisition by some men of
supernatural powers. I felt particularly disgusted with his reverence for the Yamabooshi, the allies of every
Buddhist sect in the land. Their claims to the "miraculous" were simply odious to my notions. To hear every
Jap I knew at Kioto, even to my own partner, the shrewdest of all the business men I had come across in the
East -- mentioning these followers of Lao-tze with downcast eyes, reverentially folded hands, and
affirmations of their possessing "great" and "wonderful" gifts, was more than I was prepared to patiently
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